216 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



solved had much to do with the feeling of irritation so continuously 

 displayed by the Assembly towards it; yet, but for the action of 

 that body in rejecting Mr. Service's Bill, there is little doubt that 

 dissolution under certain well-defined conditions would have been 

 conceded in 1880, as indeed it was twenty-three years later, when 

 courtesy and firmness in negotiation had replaced the bullying and 

 bluster which characterised the Berry era. 



A general feeling of relief was felt by the community at the ces- 

 sation of that strife which for fifteen years had been more or less 

 acute between the two Houses, stirring angry passions, hindering 

 useful legislation, deranging the free flow of commerce and alarming 

 capital. It was recognised that the possibility of deadlocks still 

 existed ; but it was hoped that, with a Council for which quite half 

 the electors of the colony had a vote, there would be far less scope 

 for the firebrand class agitators to inflame the multitude and stir 

 up quarrels. One of the first manifestations of this relief took the 

 form of a strong revulsion of feeling towards Graham Berry. His 

 outspoken hostility towards the lately effected reform compromise, 

 and the unabashed manner in which he turned his back on what he 

 had said and done, and actually claimed the credit of the settlement, 

 disgusted the Assembly and shamed his outside supporters. 



Within a fortnight after the passage of the Act, a vote of want of 

 confidence was carried against the Ministry by Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, 

 who had been the Attorney-General of the Berry Cabinet in 1878, 

 and the leader of the Government while his chief was away on the 

 farcical embassy. An estrangement had sprung up between these 

 old-time comrades in radicalism, and Sir Bryan, who was not with- 

 out ambition, seeing that moderation was now the safest card to 

 play, seized the occasion of Mr. Berry's waning popularity to over- 

 throw him. The victim would not accept the verdict of the 

 Assembly, and urgently appealed to the Governor to give him a 

 dissolution, resenting the refusal which he met in that quarter with 

 clamorous protests. Sir Bryan O'Loghlen assumed office in July, 

 with a carefully assorted Cabinet that formed the twenty - first 

 Ministry chosen to rule over the destinies of the colony since the 

 inauguration of responsible government. The Premier took upon 

 himself the combined duties of Attorney-General and Treasurer; 



